July 02, 2005
Trip to the NACR, Day 2
We got up early were planning to head out across the West Texas Wasteland, which is Kerrville to the Pecos River, or even as far as El Paso.
We got up at a reasonable time this morning, packed up and headed to fuel up at the local HEB store. Kathy went inside to buy some breakfast foods – yogurt, etc…
As I was pulling up to the pump I looked back to make sure the trailer would clear the concrete island, I saw a motion in the left trailer tire which was, well wrong. A slight wobble.
As the tank was being filled @$2.05/gal, I went back and shook the wheel. It definitely wobbled. Not good. I realized then that the bearings were going, if not already gone. Thoughts ran through my head, some of recrimination for not being vigilant enough to check the stupid things before I left town, and of worry that on the Saturday of Independence Day weekend I would not be able to find a way to get this repaired. I told Kathy about the problem, we and started looking for a mechanic nearby.
The first place I found that was open could not work on bearings, but the fellow did his best to help me to find someone who would be able to help me out of this predicament. I was told that the service department at the nearby GM dealer would help. I knew then the cost would probably be high, but unfortunately, I really had no choice.
I was also very glad I noticed this problem in town as opposed to having the problem become painfully and perhaps dangerously apparent on the road, the very sparsely populated road, west of Kerrville.
So, I slowly towed Surprise on her lame trailer to the dealership, hazard lights flashing the whole way. Each time I went over a bump or turned a corner I would cringe, thinking that the axle or some other component was being damaged possibly sinking my chance of getting to Huntington.
I met the service manager, and set the boat down behind the building. He told me they would get to it as soon as possible. The time was about 10:00 am. We had already lost more than an hour on the road. We left to have a real breakfast and I hoped the work would be in train when I came back.
Unfortunately, it was not. They had not even begun then I returned at 11:00. We left again and did a little shopping a sad little mall the have in Kerrville. We did manage to find some interesting antique shops, but I was preoccupied with the outcome of this dilemma. If they could not fix it today, we would be stranded in Kerrville until Tuesday. We returned at about 1 pm, and they told me they would be starting on it shortly. Sure enough, they had the trailer on a jack by 1:30, both hubs off. At 1:45 the service manager, Ryan, said both sets of wheel bearings were shot. The parts were being retrieved from a local supplier and when they arrived it would be a short job to install them. By 2:30 the job was done. Part of the problem was that a piece of fishing line had somehow gotten into the works, and the seal had been broken. Even though I thought I was doing a good job about putting grease in the bearing buddies, I learned that I am supposed to either repack the bearings every year or two, or better yet, replace them.
They did the job by replacing the entire hub, bearings and lug nuts. Given the corroded state of the hubs and the difficulty of replacing the races in the hubs, this seemed reasonable to me. In any event, all I was concerned about was that the boat would be ready to travel before it was too late. IT was expensive, unfortunately, $300. I expect that in a different time and place the costs would have been perhaps half of that. IF I did the work myelf, probably 1/3. But this was a lesson learned. The systems in the trailer that are most important are:
1. Bearings. 2. Tires/wheels 3. Suspension, 3. Electrical... I'm sure there's others, like the systems used to secure the boat to the trailer. But I think these four are the ones that can get you into the most trouble.
We were on the road at 2:45 pm and then realized that I didn’t have the chocks I had put out when I disconnected the boat. Nor did I have the old bearings to use as a part when it comes time to replace these bearings. I turned around and returned, losing another 25 minutes. By 3:25 pm we were finally on our way.
No back roads this time. We kept on I-10 until we reached Fort Stockton at 7:09pm. We stopped for a treat and continued on US 285 north to Pecos, arriving there 8:15pm.
We will continue on to Carlsbad tomorrow, and plan to stay in Socorro tomorrow evening. We can make up the time lost with no difficulty in my opinion, assuming no more transportation problems.
Posted by Bob at July 2, 2005 11:36 PM